judith meskill - soc.media.rocks

Philip Howard, of The Register, writes: DB2 'Stinger' to pack powerful punch.
Philip states that there are far too many features of IBM's DB2 UDB "Stinger" release to enumerate or give fair coverage to at this time or in this article. But what Philip does talk a bit about is the new "Autonomic" features of "Stinger" and I provide this excerpt below:
 
...what really stands out for me is the extended DBA (database administrator) capability. In particular, there are two features that are especially impressive: the Design Advisor and the product's Autonomic Management features.
...While DB2's Autonomic Management features cover a range of different areas (which, again, I don't have space to cover) the most interesting is based on IBM's Learning Optimiser (LEO) project (which is ongoing). This provides continuous statistics monitoring and updating for the DB2 optimiser, rather than relying on the DBA to "Runstats" as and when he or she thought fit, which used to be the case.
 
Now, the obvious advantage of autonomic statistics updating is not only that you take another tedious task away from the DBA but also that the system can learn faster and better about itself and therefore update the optimiser more efficiently. However, there is a potential downside, which is the impact on run-time performance. In order to minimise this, IBM uses a form of query sampling named after one of the Bernouilli family (I don't know which one - there were lots of them in the 17th and 18th centuries - to the extent that they have been described as being to mathematics what the Bach family was to music), which is based on cardinality. What is particularly nice is that query sampling is not only used in gathering statistics, but IBM is also surfacing it as an extension to SQL so that you can use it as a pre-cursor to making more detailed queries for predictive analytics, say...

A June 2, 2004 Business Wire press release announces: Bio-Reference Laboratories, Inc. Announces PSIMedica Contract with Lockton Companies, Inc. to Control Health Care Costs.
Here is an excerpt from this press release regarding Bio-Reference Laboratories' Clinical Knowledge Management (CKM) system:
 
Bio-Reference Laboratories, Inc. (NASDAQ: BRLI) announced today that its PSIMedica division has executed a multiyear contract with Lockton Companies, Inc., a leading insurance consulting and brokerage firm, to provide healthcare information analytics through its Clinical Knowledge Management (CKM) solution. As part of its full-service offering to customers, Lockton includes informatic analytic services that enable Lockton's customers to control healthcare costs and improve healthcare benefits. CKM is a proprietary solution that will enable Lockton to provide comprehensive analysis of healthcare costs and benefits.
 
"Claims analytics is a key component of the strategic services we provide our clients", said Mike Brewer, Lockton Benefit Group President. "InfoLock's disease management, cost modeling, financial analysis and overall flexibility will enable us to help our clients identify and manage claims costs at a level that was previously unattainable".
 
PSIMedica CKM is a web-based application that integrates all available health data, costs and quality information on employee benefit experience from sources including health carriers, pharmacy, disability, workers compensation, laboratory, dental, and absence data. By providing unfettered access to all the relevant data in one easily useable, web-based format, CKM makes employee benefit decision processes far more efficient. The value to the employer is control of the critical information upon which major benefits procurement and spending decisions are based.

Have you joined more than one Social Networking Service? More than five?
 
Please take this quick survey so that I can get an idea of how many of The SocialSoftware Weblogreaders have signed up for one, or more, Social Networking Services.

Click here if you don't see the SurveyBox below, and thanks in advance for weighing in!

Hat tip to SebPaquet for this blogpoll idea! (-:=

Knowledge@Wharton lists links to its current publication on Business Wire. One that caught my eye wasWhy GlobalBusiness Needs Kinder, Gentler Entrepreneurs and Leaders.
 
Quote from the Business Wire description of this article:

Images of entrepreneurs and leaders tend to focus on the vision and guts needed to get ventures off the ground or on the solitary hero leading the crowds. At the recent Lauder Institute Alumni Association Global Business Forum in New York, however, two panels on entrepreneurship and leadership debunked these notions. Speakers at the conference said entrepreneurs need social networking skills as much as business savvy to succeed. As for leaders who want to be effective in global business, they need to learn that arrogance is out, humility is in.

Thefacebook.com recently included UCLA in its collection ofuniversitiesgenerating 3,500 new UCLA users in just one month. It appears that UCLA's bruinwalk.com will also be adding social networking functionality to its menu ofservices, according to Phillip Lin for the Daily Bruin.

Bruinwalk.com plans to offer services both 'comparable' and additive to Thefacebook.com.
 
What social networking services are currently lacking on Thefacebook.com? Do any readers utilize this universityservice?

edocs Acquires Brightware eService Business from Firepond, Inc.
NATICK, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 1, 2004--edocs, Inc. (http://www.edocs.com/), a provider of customer self-service and e-billing software solutions, today announced that it has acquired the Brightware business unit of Firepond, Inc. Brightware is recognized as a pioneer in delivering eService software solutions for inbound e-mail response management, knowledge management and chat. The acquisition complements edocs' existing e-billing, web self-service and assisted care offerings, enabling companies to provide the most effective and efficient customer care regardless of which channel their customers choose for service.
 
...edocs is acquiring the following products with the Brightware suite:
 
-- "Answer" for e-mail Response Management - an automated response management system that determines the intent of incoming e-mail messages and composes personalized answers that can be automatically dispatched to customers or routed to service agents for a single click review.
 
-- "Converse" for Real-Time Chat Management - a real-time assistant that provides immediate interactions between customers and contact center agents.
 
-- "Concierge" for Knowledge Management - an intelligent knowledge management solution that leverages the Brightware knowledgebase to automatically direct inbound customer requests to the most appropriate information or resource.

For InfoWorld, Ephraim Schwartz writes--HP helps users meld business with IT
What stands out in this article for me is that HP has:
"...regrouped all the functions that touch customers in one organization," Kohler said, adding that the goal is to help customers synchronize business and IT in order to capitalize on a changing business environment.
 
To that end, the HP.com Business to Business extranet will give HP enterprise customers global visibility into catalogs, purchasing, and order status, allowing them to procure products across multiple HP regions from a single site. Catalog data will be personalized by industry and customer profile, as will the extranet, which will include account-specific content.
 
An opt-in component will also allow HP to monitor and analyze in real time customers' activities on the Web site, giving HP the ability to link what is happening in support with what is happening in terms of purchasing, for example.
 
...According to HP's Kohler, ECO will also reduce HP's operational costs by streamlining the company's ability to serve customers. HP's efforts at consolidation will help "normalize" the number of calls into HP call centers by giving customers "global consistency," Kohler said.
 
..Perhaps stealing a page from Dell's knowledge management book, HP will also offer a central repository of information that can be accessed globally...

Bob Brewin writes a Sidebar for Computerworld--Keep Mobile Apps Simple, Say IT Managers.
Wherein he cites some advice from a law firm that makes use of handheld devices to feed input to their knowledge management backend:
 
...Companies that want to deliver data to end users who have devices smaller than laptop PCs need to make sure it is "concisely formatted" to fit on a 3-inch screen, said Justin Hectus, director of information at Keesal, Young & Logan, a law firm in Long Beach, Calif.
Hectus said attorneys at the firm use mobile devices that are hooked into the back-end knowledge management system. Simple but powerful text fields let the users enter small amounts of information on the fly and quickly share the data with other workers...

For The New York Times, Jennifer 8. Leewrites ABlackBerry Throbs, and a Wonk Has a Datewherein she discusses the popularity of the BlackBerry paging devices on"The Hill".

Jennifer also shares some examples of the language of text flirting ala BlackBerry messaging, and I have pluckedthese berries and listed them below.
 
Text messaging via pager, cell phone, or any other text messaging enabled device, is screamingly popular as a'flirting' mechanism. Terminology that has grown up around the BlackBerry in the Bush Administration on Capitol Hill(Hmm, is this then the "Blackberry Bush" Administration?):
 
•Berryingthumb action associated with typing messages
• Berry Overtureshort, innocuous inquiry
• BlackBerry Withdrawalsome claim it is really difficult to live without
• BlirtingBlackBerry flirting
• CrackBerriesfor their addictive quality
• Digital Couragewho needs Beer & Booze when you have a BlackBerry?
• Drunken Berryingsimilar to drunken dialing, dangerous
• Sending a Berrytoo late or too ackward to call? Send a text message

Flirting or Blirting is hot on the hill this spring. Jennifer Lee describes the daily transmogrification of Berryusers from "earnest policy wonks" by day, to "mini-keyboard Lotharios" by night. She closes with ruminations on thosefor whom BlackBerry privileges have been withdrawn and must now flirt "the old-school wayin person." (-:=

Molly Wright Steenson wishes she could see Social Capital: Forms of Interaction. The link Molly postsis to Fernanda Viégas' website, I have also included a link to theWhitney belowin related links.

Fernanda is one of the artists participating in this show at the Whitney Museum of American Art Independent StudyProgram Exhibition in New York City on view until June 26, 2004 (The Art Gallery of The Graduate Center The CityUniversity of New York 365 Fifth Avenue at 34th Street, Tuesday–Saturday 12–6 pm):

This group exhibition brings together contemporary artists who make the complexities of social relations the subject, material, or form of their work. Responding to contemporary societal conditions, some artists consider the influence of new technologies on human connections, while some explore the effects of cultural difference and geo-politics. Others orchestrate situations in which viewers interact directly with the artwork or with one another, forging a community within the space of the gallery. Considered together, the artists in Social Capital present various models of human interaction, encouraging viewers to reflect critically on their own positions within different social networks.

Participating Artists Include:

caraballo-farman | Andy Deck | Renée Green | Ingo Günter | Jens Haaning | Emil Hrvatin & Peter Senk | Mark Lombardi | Mongrel | New No York | Lyn Rice, Ben Rubin & Lisa Strausfeld | Santiago Sierra | 16 Beaver Group | Sociable Media Group MIT | Luc Steels | Elaine Tin Nyo | Rirkrit Tiravanija | Fernanda Viégas & Marc Smith

This exhibition was organized by the 2003-04 Helena Rubinstein Curatorial Fellows of the Whitney Museum of American Art Independent Study Program: Howie Chen, Leta Ming, Allison Moore, and Nadia Perucic.

If you are in NYC, go see the showand let Molly and I know what you thought about it. (-:=

The 'Blogging' Gospel that is, according to an AP Business WriterYuri Kageyama in: Japanese Web Star Spreads Blogging Gospel.
 
Kudos Mr. Ito!
 
Joi Ito is a bright star, or planet perhaps, in the blogging constellation and beyond. And, the #joiito IRCchannel on freenode.net is a 24/7 embodiment of the endless, breathless patter of Joi's global family of friends.
 
Joi is passionate about democracy, and the AP article concludes with this quote:
 
"Blogging will fundamentally change the (way) people interact with media and politics and provide us with anopportunity to overhaul our outdated democracies," he said.
 
It's brilliant to see Joi get some well-deserved coverage on the AP newswire. (-:=

Craigslist news items pop up daily in my newsreader.

I am continually amazed by the widespread and exceedingly creative utilization of this community based networkingand classified sharing system.
 
Some make me laugh, some make me almost cry but, I just had to share today's best craigslist post.

Heather Gilmore writes for The New York Post How I LuredSix Cheating Hubbies Into My Web Trap.
 
How did Heather do it? Via Craigslist, of course… (-:0
 
The first reply to Heather's 'come hither all of you cheating hubbies' post on Craigslist arrived within 22 seconds!Heather says that she had 80 responses within a half-hour.

Heather Gilmore goes on to relate a number of details about the hubbies who responded to her post. Many sent photosof various parts of their anatomy and some sent photos of themselves with their wives on their wedding day. Heatheralso met with a number of the men who responded to her post. Check out her article for the deets.

Happy Sunday everyone…

Cisco's Stephanie Carhee, in an article provided courtesy of Cisco Press to informIT, writes: Migrating to IP Telephony? Top Ten Tips for Guiding a Successful IP Telephony Implementation.
Embedded in Tip 6, Follow the 80/20 Rule for Implementation are ten steps to engagement success:
The fruit of managing several implementations, Cisco's "IP Telephony Steps to Success Engagement Guide" is a knowledge management portal designed to help Cisco IP telephony partners in creating their own implementation plans (cisco.com/go/stepstosuccess, Cisco.com login required). Following is a condensed version of the high-level steps that should be considered when beginning and completing the implementation phase:
Step 1. Facilitate Implementation Planning
Step 2. Hold Implementation Planning Meeting
Step 3. Define Project Monitoring and Control
Step 4. Develop Status Reporting Structure
Step 5. Begin Site Preparation
Step 6. Conduct Install and Configure
Step 7. Manage Test and Acceptance
Step 8. Deliver Knowledge Handoff
Step 9. Ensure Customer Acceptance
Step 10. Complete Closeout
 
A comprehensive depiction of the key implementation steps, the "The Road to IP Telephony" mini poster, is available to download free.

Crowd surfing the UCLA campus, hmmm now there's a thought. Well that's just what SmallPlanet is doing with 'CrowdSurfer' on Nokia 6600 and 6230 phonesutilizing Bluetooth radio signals and GPRS connections to SmallPlanet.net.
 
According to the Business Wire pressrelease Social Networking Graduates to Wireless at SmallPlanet.net:

"This is true location-based, mobile social networking," says SmallPlanet's Ken Torimaru, who led the development of CrowdSurfer. "We are giving users the option to know when friends are nearby and to meet new people with whom they share some common, previously invisible connection, and we're doing it in the real world; in real time, in real place."
... Like most advances in consumer information technology, such as the Internet itself, the location-based mobile services that will figure prominently in the coming " mBoom" come with risks as well as rewards, such as potential misuse and loss of privacy. "We are very focused on privacy issues with this application," says Heaney. "We are rolling it out slowly and methodically, and with the maximum amount of filters and controls that allow users to determine exactly who, if anyone, gets to 'see' or 'find' them at any given time."

So let's seeSomeone turn on the socialight, then let's get a CrowdSurfer to go out and Find Friends, so we can playsome Dodgeball, over at the WINKsite. Hey, it is a SmallPlanet after all, and getting smaller and smaller all the time. mBoomhere we come… (-:=

Europe's Largest 'Knowledge System' for Remote Diagnosis of Vehicle Faults Unveiled
LONDON, May 28 /PRNewswire/ -- Vehicle mechanics across Europe will be able to share their expertise and experience of specific vehicle faults thanks to an internet-based 'knowledge system' unveiled by TRW, the world's tenth largest automotive supplier.
 
It's the largest knowledge system of its kind in Europe and will allow technicians to diagnose and repair vehicle problems much more quickly and efficiently.
 
The system is based on knowledge software from eGain Communications, the leading provider of customer service and contact centre software.
 
eGain's knowledge system will be offered as part of TRW's 'Internet diagnostic' programme, called Id. It is forecast that over 4,000 garages in the UK and France will be using Id by the end of their launch year. Id is based on 'remote diagnostic' technology, which analysts believe will revolutionise the automotive industry for years to come.
 
Remote diagnostics takes advantage of the fact that almost all modern vehicle systems are governed by computers. 'Id' accesses all of the diagnostic information collected by those in-vehicle computers and makes them available to technicians on desktop PCs or laptops...